This invention generally relates to information retrieval and, more particularly described, relates to determining a desired listing, such as for a business, from a search using an intersection of coverage areas and a search region.
The telephone rings and an employee answers the phone, xe2x80x9cHello, Acme Pizza Delivery. How may I help you?xe2x80x9d The caller responds, xe2x80x9cYeah, I am starving. I am really craving a loaded pizza with the works. You know, pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, peppers, extra cheese, onions, olives, and anchovies . . . and don""t forget ham and extra garlic.xe2x80x9d The caller proceeds to order several more pizzas, a full complement of drinks, and six orders of breadsticks. The employee finishes taking the order as the caller asks, xe2x80x9cCan you deliver this stuff to my house?xe2x80x9d The employee responds, xe2x80x9cSure we can deliver. What""s your address?xe2x80x9d The hungry caller says, xe2x80x9c1234 East Broad Street.xe2x80x9d xe2x80x9cOh. 1234 East Broad Street, huh? I""m sorry sir, we don""t deliver in that area.xe2x80x9d The silence is deafening. The caller cannot believe what he is hearing. xe2x80x9cYou will have to call one of our other stores that serves your location.xe2x80x9d The caller, now frustrated at the prospect of giving the order again and still hungry, hangs up the telephone and tries to find the appropriate store that serves his location.
The caller in the above example may have avoided his frustration and quickly eased his hunger pains if he had used some type of information retrieval system to determine the closest business entity, such as a pizza delivery business, to serve his address. Using such a system, the caller may call a single number and, depending on the location associated with the caller""s telephone number, the caller is connected with the closest business entity to serve the caller""s location. Some businesses offering delivery services, such as pizza delivery businesses, employ such systems to avoid the exact customer dissatisfaction issues raised in the above example.
In more detail, when using the information retrieval system, the caller typically searches for information about the closest entity to serve the given location. The caller may be searching for information about the closest business, the closest governmental entity (such as a police station or fire station), or even the closest hospital. However, the usefulness of any such information retrieval system is dependent upon the accuracy of making the determination of the closest entity to serve the given location.
In one attempt to provide such an accurate determination, the determination of the closest business entity to serve a given location uses a pure distance calculation from the given location to the business entity. The pure distance is a point-to-point distance between coordinates of the given location and the coordinates of the business entity. However, using a pure distance from the given location to the business entity does not reflect the business"" draw area for customers. A draw area (also called a coverage area) for a business is essentially the area in which the business can provide its goods or services to potential customers. For example, a business two miles away that only serves customers in a certain zip code area (not including the given separate location) may not be the closest business entity to serve the given location when a second business three miles away serves several counties, including the given location. Thus, using a pure distance to the given location may not always provide the most accurate determination of the closest business entity to serve a given location.
In another attempt to provide such an accurate determination, the closest business entity to serve a given location is determined by a search using predefined boundaries. Typically, such a system allows a caller (also more generally called a user) to search by predefined boundary (such as county, city, neighborhood, zip code, or other politically defined boundary) for the closest business entity serving the given location. Unfortunately, searching by predefined boundary can be inaccurate and problematic as well. For example, a close business serving the given location may be just outside the searched region (e.g., the searched county, city, neighborhood, or zip code) while being only a very short distance from the given location. The search simply misses the business due to the use of predefined boundaries. Thus, using predefined boundaries during a search for the closest business entity serving a given location may also lead to an inaccurate determination of the closest business entity serving the given location.
A system available from Southwestern Bell of San Antonio, Texas called the xe2x80x9cIntellinumberxe2x80x9d system allows a business to select a trade area or coverage area associated with a business. However, in the xe2x80x9cIntellinumberxe2x80x9d system, the trade area of the business is defined by standard ZIP+4 codes. The business is able to select a trade area that is then translated into a region defined by the standard ZIP+4 codes. When a caller uses the business"" central number, the xe2x80x9cIntellinumberxe2x80x9d system matches the call with the appropriately defined trade area for the business. In this manner, the trade area of the business is simply a territory defined by predefined boundaries. This may become frustrating when a business"" trade area is not accurately represented with predefined boundaries. As a result of the inaccurate representation, dependence upon predefined boundaries when defining a trade area of a business can also lead to an inaccurate determination of the closest entity to serve a given location.
In summary, there is a need for determining a closest business entity to serve a given location that (1) more accurately determines the closest entity, (2) does not depend upon predefined or, more particularly, politically established boundaries, (3) allows for arbitrary and customized definitions of coverage areas, and (4) allows for default definitions of coverage areas depending upon a categorization of the entity.
The present invention is directed to a system and methods for determining a desired listing using an intersection of a search region and one or more coverage areas. In general, a desired listing is another term for a representation of the closest entity serving a given location or reference point. A coverage area is defined for each listing representing an entity, such as a business, a governmental unit (e.g., a police station, a library, a school, or a fire station), or a hospital. The listings and their associated coverage areas are maintained within an index to a database. The index is essentially a guide used to find data from within the database because each listing in the index is related to a specific record of data within the database. The listings are categorized within the index to make it easier to search for data related to the listings using the index.
The coverage area may be defined without regard to predefined boundaries and may be any arbitrary polygon shape. While a coverage area may be conveniently discussed in terms of a business"" coverage area for listings associated with a particular type of business entity, those skilled in the art will quickly realize the applicability of the concepts of the present invention to other types of entities, such as defining a service coverage area for a hospital or a draw area for a school. Another example may be the service coverage area defined for a fire department. Thus, it is important to realize that the principles of the present invention are applicable when attempting to determine a desired one of several entities that provide goods or services to customers, users, or consumers.
Stated generally, the present invention provides a method for determining a desired listing from a group of listings using an intersection of a search region and coverage areas associated respectively with each of the listings. The general method begins by creating a definition with respect to each of the coverage areas. The definition is created without regard to a predefined boundary, such as a zip code, city, county, or other politically defined boundary.
The definition may be created as a predetermined area based upon a categorization of each of the listings. As mentioned above, the listings are categorized within the index. Typically, the definition with respect to a coverage area is defined in default to be the predetermined area depending on the listing""s category. For example, one category of restaurants may have a one mile radius coverage area while another category of restaurants may only have a 0.2 mile radius coverage area.
Additionally, the coverage area definition may be created as a selectable area for each of the listings based upon selection criteria for the selectable area. For example, the selection criteria may be whether a fee has been paid to define the selectable area. If so, the selectable area may be a customized size and shape to better suit the entity paying the fee (selecting the area).
In one aspect of the present invention, a reference point may be determined within the search region. Typically, the reference point may be determined based upon provided information about the reference point. The provided information may include a telephone number of a telecommunications device. The provided information may also be received over a first telecommunications device as the telephone number of a second telecommunications device.
Furthermore, a location of the reference point may be determined based upon the provided information. The location may be determined based upon the provided information being location data. The location data, such as conventional longitude and latitude coordinates, provides the location of the reference point. Typically, the location data is associated with a telephone number within a lookup table. However, the location data may also include data, such as global positioning system (GPS) location data, embedded within a signal generated by a telecommunications device. The location data may be interpreted to determine the reference point""s location.
Next, the coverage areas intersecting the search region are found within the search region. These coverage areas are typically referred to as intersecting coverage areas. Additionally, these intersecting coverage areas may be ranked into a ranked order. In one aspect of the present invention, this step of ranking is based upon the amount of area intersecting the search region with respect to each of the intersecting coverage areas. Normally, the highest in the ranked order represents the intersecting coverage area having the greatest amount of area intersecting the coverage area. However, in another aspect of the present invention, the step of ranking is based upon the proximity of each of the intersecting coverage areas to the reference point.
Finally, one of the listings is identified as the desired listing based upon its association with a predetermined one of the intersecting coverage areas. Usually, the identification of the desired listing is based upon the fact that the desired listing is associated with a predetermined one of the intersecting coverage areas in the ranked order, such as the highest ranked intersecting coverage area.
More particularly described, the present invention provides a more detailed method for determining a desired listing from a group of listings using an intersection of a search region and coverage areas associated respectively with each of the listings. The more detailed method begins by creating a definition with respect to each of the coverage areas. The definition is created without regard to a predefined boundary, such as a politically defined boundary. Each of the coverage areas are normally defined as a predetermined area based upon a categorization of each of the listings. However, the coverage areas may be defined as a selectable area based upon selection criteria, such as whether or not a fee has been paid.
A reference point is determined based upon provided information about the reference point. The provided information may be a telephone number of a telecommunications device. The provided information may also be received over a first telecommunications device as the telephone number of a second telecommunications device.
A location of the reference point is also determined based upon the provided information. The provided information may include location data maintained within a lookup table and referenced to the telephone number. This location data provides the location of the reference point. Additionally, the location data may be within a signal generated by the telecommunications device. The search region is then selected based upon a proximity of the search region to the reference point.
Once the coverage areas are defined, the reference point determined and the search region selected, each of the coverage areas intersecting the search region are found. These coverage areas are referred to as the intersecting coverage areas and are ranked into a ranked order. The intersecting coverage areas are typically ranked based upon an amount of area intersecting the search region with respect to each of the intersecting coverage areas. By ranking based on the amount of intersecting area, the highest in the ranked order may correspond to the intersecting coverage area having the greatest of the amount of area intersecting the search region. The intersecting coverage areas may also be ranked into the ranked order based upon a proximity of each of the intersecting coverage areas to the reference point.
Finally, one of the listings is identified as the desired listing based upon the listing""s association with a highest of the intersecting coverage areas in the ranked order.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, the present invention is a system for determining a desired listing from a group of listings using an intersection of a search region and coverage areas associated respectively with each of the listings. The system includes a processor, a memory storage device coupled to the processor, and a communications interface also coupled to the processor. The memory storage device maintains an index of the listings. Each of listings within the index is categorized based on an association of each listing with at least one index category. The memory storage device also maintains a lookup table. The communications interface is used to communicate to a remote device, such as a telecommunications device or remote computer.
In this configuration, the processor can create a definition within the index with respect to each of the coverage areas. The definition is created without regards to a predefined boundary, such as a politically defined boundary, and is normally based upon the index category of the listing associated with the coverage area. Additionally, the processor may create the coverage area definition to be a selectable area for each of the listings based upon selection criteria, such as whether a fee has been paid to define custom parameters of the selectable area.
The processor can also receive provided information about a reference point from the remote device over the communications interface. The provided information may be a telephone number of the remote device. The processor can also determine a location of the reference point by using the provided information to find location data associated with the reference point. The location data is maintained within the lookup table on the memory storage device. However, the provided information may also be location data within a signal generated by the remote device. In this situation, the location data may be interpreted by the processor to determine the location of the reference point.
The processor is further operative to search and find the coverage areas intersecting the search region. These coverage areas are referred to as the intersecting coverage areas. The processor is capable of ranking the intersecting coverage areas into a ranked order. Typically, a highest in the ranked order corresponds to the intersecting coverage area having the greatest of the amount of area intersecting the search region. Alternatively, the processor can rank the intersecting coverage areas based upon a proximity of each of the intersecting coverage areas to the reference point.
The processor can then identify one of the listings maintained within the memory storage device as the desired listing. Such an identification of the desired listing can be performed by the processor based upon the listing associated with a predetermined one of the intersecting coverage areas in the ranked order. Typically, this would be the highest ranked intersecting coverage area in the ranked order. Finally, the processor can distribute the identification of the desired listing over the communications interface to the remote device.
Although the exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed towards systems and methods for determining a desired listing using an intersection of a search region and coverage areas, it should be understood that the present invention may be applied to a broad variety of other information retrieval systems.
In summary, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for determining a listing using an intersection of a search region and coverage areas.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system and method that more accurately determines a desired listing representing a closest entity capable of serving a reference point.
It is still a further object of the present invention to determine a desired listing without regard to predefined boundaries, such as politically defined boundaries.
It is still a further object of the present invention to allow for arbitrary definitions of coverage areas.
It is still a further object of the present invention to allow for default definitions of coverage areas depending upon a categorization of the entity represented within an index as a listing.
The present invention and its object and advantages, those described above and otherwise, will be appreciated from studying the following detailed description, drawings, and the appended claims.